Friday Fun!

 We had a great day together, once again. 

Haley and Sinthia try a plantain. 

Yum! 

 

African culture lesson with Miss Albitz

Opera Ignite Program

Jesse

Crazy Sock Day

Welcome to Mystery Theatre!

Students had fun in newly created cafe groups for our first discussion of The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin.  Although we have just scratched the surface of the book, we've read enough to make us wonder about the game, who will be playing, and what it will involve.  We've met a few interesting characters, and we're looking forward to finding out more about them. Discussions went very well today, and several groups were wondering about the claim made in the first chapter that one of the tenants is a bomber, one is a bookie, and one is a mistake.   So far, everyone seems friendly, and we're not sure who these tenants could be.  The Voki above is a way to earn an extra point in Reading.  Once in a while, these characters will show up to keep the students on their toes with the novel. 

During Social Studies, students worked on their fables, which seem to be shaping up nicely.  Final drafts will soon be started!  Then, we can share our tales with others.

Homework:
Math - Practice page: Pasture problems
Reading - Review The Telephone Call (quiz on vocabulary and story tomorrow).  Read Chapters 3,4,5,6,and 7 of The Westing Game for next Thursday.  Complete your newly assigned role.
Spelling - Study!  Quiz tomorrow.
Science - Alien materials
Wellness - Chapter 4-1 questions and vocabulary due on Friday, along with Fitness Report Card
BE SURE TO SUBMIT ANY PARENT/TEACHER CONFERENCE REQUEST FORMS SOON.ALSO, RETURN YOUR SIGNED REPORT CARD ENVELOPE.
Mrs. Friday's Assignments:
Spelling - Writing Assignment, spelling 3Xeach, study, and 2 wk.bk. pages
Math - 1/2 Simplify fractions - group 1
            4 tables w.s. - group 2

An Exciting Election Day!

Some of us returned to school today a little sleepy.  It was exciting to watch the results of our presidential election on television last night.  We watched to see who won each state's electoral votes, and it was a close race. President Obama ended with 303 electoral votes, while Mitt Romney had 206.  President Obama had a total of 59,725,608 votes, and Mitt Romney had 57,098,650.   In the end, President Obama was elected to serve the country as our president for the next four years.  What an exciting day it was!

We enjoyed an exciting day of learning today, too!  In Language Arts, we worked on combining sentences to make them more fluent.  Some pairs of sentences had common subjects, and others had common predicates.  We worked to combine subjects or predicates to avoid having them sound choppy.  We will continue to practice with many examples.  

In Social Studies, we explored the culture of western Africa.  The students saw a short National Geographic video clip, and they viewed many pictures of art, traditional dress, food, etc.  They also worked on their fables.  Many are shaping up nicely.

Homework:
Math - Pg. 106 (both sides)
Reading - Read Ch. 1&2 in The Westing Game.  Complete role for cafe. 
Writing - Combining sentences activity
Science - Bring in alien materials
Wellness - Ch. 4-1 questions and vocabulary due Friday, along with exercise log.
SHARE YOUR REPORT CARD WITH YOUR PARENTS.  RETURN ENVELOPE SIGNED, AS WELL AS SLIP FOR PARENT/TEACHER CONFERENCES.
Mrs. Friday's Assignments:
Spelling - comprehension, sentences, 2 wk.bk. pages
Math - 1/2 Simplifying Fractions w.s. - group 1 and 4 Tables w.s. - group 2

Catch That Sentence!

How to Avoid Run-On Sentences on Howcast

Now that students are familiar with simple sentences, fragments, dependent clauses, independent clauses, compound and complex sentences, we are taking a look at run-on sentences.  Run-on sentences are common, and today we learned about options we have for fixing them.  The video above will help you to review the punctuation needed.

The Telephone Call was a story we read at the end of last week, but never reviewed due to all that was going on, such as our wax museum and Mr. Nealon's visit.  Today, Miss Albitz conducted a thorough discussion of the story.  The characters and how they dealt with their grief was analyzed.  In the story, the characters came to the conclusion that there are some things that we'll never understand in this world. Particularly confusing in this story was dealing with change and death.  Although this story was sad, many of us go through a family crisis from time to time.  Hopefully the students will draw some comfort from how these characters were able to cope.

Students heard the first chapter of The Westing Game read to them today.  They were given new cafe groups, a character log, and a new role for this Thursday's cafe.  Since the cafe will take place on Thursday, students are only assigned two chapters.  Already they can see that there will be many clues to pay attention to in this new novel.  I know they'll have fun reading!

TOMORROW IS AN IN-SERVICE DAY FOR TEACHERS.  NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS.  

Homework:
Math - cryptograph paper
Reading - Read chapters 1 and 2 in The Westing Game.  Take notes on characters and complete your role for Thursday.
Spelling - Study your words!  Visit Spelling City for practice!
Writing - Fragments and Run-ons practice sheet
Science - Bring in alien materials
Wellness - Ch. 4-1 vocabulary and questions for Friday.  Also bring exercise report card (week#1)
Mrs. Friday's Homework:
Spelling - Stairstep, 2 wk.bk pages
Math - Reducing fraction 1/2 w.s. - Group 1 and 4 Tables - Group 2